Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams says the 'Trump hangover' still impacts him and his family 'in significant ways'

When President Donald Trump nominated Dr. Adams to serve as surgeon general, he wanted to focus on the issue of opiate addiction, which had affected his family.

Lacey was against Trump and worried that her husband would be stigmatized if he joined the administration, but the anesthesiologist convinced her that he could do work that would benefit Americans.

The couple spoke of the difficulties of shaking off the "Trump Effect," which they said has deeply affected their lives since the surgeon general stepped down from his post.

According to Dr. Adams, the former president takes the air out of the room.

He said that the former president's new campaign will make things more difficult for him.

It took eight months for Dr. Adams to find a new job, a situation that worried the couple as they needed to support their three children.

Lacey Adams said that it was hard for him to find a landing spot because of the Trump Effect. His wife will have surgery this week.

He said that people are afraid of touching anything associated with Trump.

The former surgeon general said that he was not complaining, but wanted to give context to the situation.

Dr. Adams was hired by the president of the university to be the executive director of health equity initiatives. Adams is a professor of pharmacy practice and public health at the university.

During an interview with Insider last year, one of the most prominent figures on the White House coronaviruses task force in 2020 lamented the partisanship that came to envelop his time in the administration, when he sought to boost the health outcomes of individuals who were most vulnerable in contracting.

In February and March of 2020 I was talking with the NAACP and the National Medical Association to raise the alarm that COVID-19 would disproportionately hit black and brown people. I told the groups that the virus would affect people in poor health. He told Insider that it was heartbreaking to see it play out the way it did.

The pitch was not heard the way I wanted it to be heard because people only saw the guy next to the president. They didn't see the black man who overcame so many obstacles to become a doctor after growing up poor and in a rural area. The person who spent his entire career fighting for health equity didn't get the attention they deserved. They saw Trump's Surgeon General and that made people distrust anything I said in that area.